Movies you've been watching...

[Bloody_Inferno]

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3

I've been a strong advocate for James Gunn, one of the few auteur directors who retains a child like sense of wonder. And Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 is another testament to that. Of course, with all the events that's come and gone leading to Vol 3, everything that's happened to Gunn (his firing thanks to some alt right twitter freaks, becoming the head of DC at Warner Bros) has certainly influenced this movie. This isn't just a fitting conclusion to the trilogy, but a massive party that burns the entire house down and rides off into the sunset.

The message isn't subtle either. As Gunn and co takles his usual core themes of abusive father figures full of delusions of grandeur, this time in the form of the genuinely evil High Evolutionary, who's metaphor couldn't be any more on the nose. Of course, a Guardians movie is all about the Guardians themselves, now being much more personal and leading to a darker path centred around Rocket Racoon. You can really hear Bradley Cooper giving his all.

Vol.3 has its flaws of course. It's overbloated and goes on a tad too long. But perhaps that's the point, with all the characters laying their imperfections bare and being honest about it. As a result, Guardians 3 is emotionally heartfelt, thoughtful, and a lot of fun.

I'm definitely looking forward to Gunn's bright future with DC movies.

 

[wankerness]

We'll see how he does with DC. I mean, I'm sure he'll do better than the previous guys, but I see studio interference and too much work being dumped on him possibly leading to disaster. I was not a big fan of "THE Suicide Squad" compared to the first two GOTG movies, though it obviously was a HUGE improvement over "[Not The] Suicide Squad."

I'll see this eventually but I gotta say post Avengers Endgame I have almost no enthusiasm about seeing these things anymore. I saw Doctor Strange 2 in theaters, watched Black Widow and Shang-Chi and Thor 4 on disc, haven't bothered with Eternals or Ant-Man 3 or Black Panther 2 yet and have no desire to see them, but at the same time not having seen them puts me off watching GOTG3 cause "i won't know what's going on." I think I saw the majority in theater or at worst bought the disc the day it came out and immediately watched it when I got it in the past. Dunno if I'm getting old or they're just starting to feel less like things you have to see and more like perfunctory entries in a money-making machine. Or maybe it's just the Disney Plus series. No way am I watching those streaming series, yet the movies referring to them like you have to have watched them makes me like the movies less.

 

[MFB]

Post-Endgame, the only Marvel I've seen has been: No Way Home, Thor: Love & Thunder for movies which doesn't really body well as one was entirely fan-service to end a character's trilogy, and the other was self-indulgent to the point of parody for a character who just got good. TV series, I watched Wandavision which was really good, and then Falcon & Winter Soldier which didn't really move the needle at all besides officially giving Sam the title of Cap. I saw parts of Black Widow on the plane before falling asleep and waking up to generic 'stuff falling all around while people are inside' and was like, "yup, that checks out."

I think with the retirement of characters I was invested in for the next generation, which was bound to happen, I don't really see myself getting overly invested in superheroes like the last time. DC could have some interesting stuff come out if they play it right now that Gunn IS the studio vs. fighting them, but we'll see; as long as the Pattinson Bat series doesn't get shitcanned, that's enough for me to consider it a success.

 

[wankerness]

I really liked Shang-Chi. I forgot about that Spider-Man movie. I thought that was fun enough. But yeah, neither were like the older good ones like say, Civil War or Captain America 2 where they felt like they were part of something big and were building towards something cool. Plus, as fun as some of their current characters are (I particularly like Drax), none of them are on the level of Captain America or Iron Man.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Guardians 3, and all the other Guardians actually, are the MCU movies that feels a lot more standalone stories, so nobody obliged to do any homework to see any of them. Vol 3 only just mentions Endgame plots but just swiftly brushes through them with a few lines and that's it.

Gunn has too strong an auteur mindset to be easily bent by studio interference. Comparing the 2 Suicide Squad movies is pretty much the exhibit of that. And WB allowed Gunn to turn a script he wrote while bored during lockdown into a TV show that ended up being successful. I mean, the only kind of interference that's shown is Gunn already praising The Flash to be good... because as a WB employee of course he'll say that. You don't bag mouth your company's work and your boss's decisions to the public.

Gunn with DC will be fine and so will Superman Legacy. He's already got James Mangold on board for Swamp Thing, and he's a guy who won't take jobs lightly, and that includes Dial of Destiny, since he got the brothers who help him write Ford V Ferrari on board on that as well. The Battinson 2 is still happening, at worst it's going to be 9 hours long, constant blue filter, and a gritty remix of All Apologies will be used.

Disney screwed up by listening to the small but loud twitter trolls and firing Gunn, then realised it was a mistake before hiring him again. Gunn's supporters, and the fact that nobody wanted to play with his toys were evident of that. You can even tell that Taika didn't want the Guardians in Love And Thunder and got them over and done in 5 minutes. Apparently Chris Pratt and Pom Kleminteif was calling Gunn during the Avengers set because they didn't fully trust the direction from the Russo bros. If anything, Guardians 3 makes it obvious that Gunn's firing still isn't exactly water under the bridge.

 

[BlackMastodon]

It's overbloated and goes on a tad too long.

This is how I've felt about all MCU stuff since Endgame, hell even that one kinda kicked off the trend.

We'll see how he does with DC. I mean, I'm sure he'll do better than the previous guys, but I see studio interference and too much work being dumped on him possibly leading to disaster. I was not a big fan of "THE Suicide Squad" compared to the first two GOTG movies, though it obviously was a HUGE improvement over "[Not The] Suicide Squad."

I'll see this eventually but I gotta say post Avengers Endgame I have almost no enthusiasm about seeing these things anymore. I saw Doctor Strange 2 in theaters, watched Black Widow and Shang-Chi and Thor 4 on disc, haven't bothered with Eternals or Ant-Man 3 or Black Panther 2 yet and have no desire to see them, but at the same time not having seen them puts me off watching GOTG3 cause "i won't know what's going on." I think I saw the majority in theater or at worst bought the disc the day it came out and immediately watched it when I got it in the past. Dunno if I'm getting old or they're just starting to feel less like things you have to see and more like perfunctory entries in a money-making machine. Or maybe it's just the Disney Plus series. No way am I watching those streaming series, yet the movies referring to them like you have to have watched them makes me like the movies less.

Agree with everything here. Spiderman No Way Home was fun, Black Widow and Thor: Love and Thunder were okay, Black Panther 2 was super long and drawn out and was just super meh, The Eternal was >2 hours of who gives a shit. Guardians 3 was basically the only other MCU movie I was looking forward to and I'm very much checked out after I see this one.

It definitely feels like seeing the money machine churn out another 2 flicks/year now. On the upside, I don't see the writer's strike having any kind of affect on MCU movies/shows in the near future.

 

[TheBlackBard]

^I wouldn't call that an upside. But then again, I'm waiting for the MCU to die, so there's that.

 

[Shawn]

Just watched this movie. So great. Funny, too. I also work with someone who hiked the AT from Georgia to Maine. He recommended I get the book.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Just watched this movie. So great. Funny, too. I also work with someone who hiked the AT from Georgia to Maine. He recommended I get the book.

my dad gave me the book. It's great.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

This is how I've felt about all MCU stuff since Endgame, hell even that one kinda kicked off the trend.

I'd argue that the Lord Of The Rings trilogy started the trend of every blockbuster movie being mandated to be longer than 90 mins. The Raimi Spiderman and Nolan Batman trilogies and certainly Avatar just perpetuated the trend.

Not that I'm defending MCU, they're certainly guilty of it. Hell Iron Man 1 was already over the moment the village was liberated, but forces itself to keep going because they forget they had the Iron Lebowski villain to deal with, so it was a problem right from the get go.

Regarding the problems with the state of the MCU... it has been 15 years. That's a very long time to stay on top of the popular zeitgeist, so of course people are bound to grow out of it, get off the train, wish for it to go away the same way as the Westerns or 50s-60s epic movie. And all other studios trying to recreate the formula by adding more to the pop culture bloat certainly doesn't help either. Marvel's decision of overexposure with an over bloat of TV shows and movies is something they're feeling the consequences for now.

One of the problems with post Endgame MCU is that Phase 4 tends to feel all the same, and that's definitely an issue, since Disney are trying to build an in-house team so you'll see the either the same names, or a bunch of unknowns suddenly thrown dump trucks of money to play with their toys, but then get studio interference by getting their second unit to film the action scenes overstuffed with CGI, and over reliance on reshoots and last minute 'fix on post' editing. The pandemic also crippled a lot of their plans, and some of them severely more than others, hence why Quantumania suffers hard and becoming one of the worst of the canon, and the stepping stone for everyone who's sick of the MCU to see it fall.

The current writer's strike will certainly deal a heavy blow to pop culture. Just remember that the last writer's strike gave us amazing dumpster fires like Transformers Revenge of the Fallen and Dragonbal Evolution.

It's funny since what made me a fan really began with James Gunn. Sure I watched from the beginning but only casually, but Gunn made me pay attention to upcoming auteur directors getting their 'big exposure' then make me check out their other movies. Apparently he's always on time with schedules, always under budget, and like Nolan, never does any reshoots. It's the reason the Guardians movies have aged better than any other MCU trilogy.

Funny since Star Wars is coping worse. The fact that the series has become completely guileless, bending over backwards to the "fan base" or the Twitter trolls, it's either become safe (Solo, Kenobi), shameless pandering (Mando Season 2) or stupid (Rise Of Skywalker, Book of Boba Fett). I wanted Star Wars to die a harsh death, then Andor came along and changed everything making me fall in love with Star Wars again.


I've said before that the best cure to 'superhero' or 'franchise' fatigue, is to go seek out and watch other movies and shows. 2022 was the best evidence of that with a whole slew of great content, and there's a fair amount of promise this year too. Oppenheimer and Dune are the two big hitters, but then you have Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins, which brings him back to his indie passion projects, where he's always strongest at. And there's the other sleepers that you won't find out until later during the year. I'm planning to see Air next, since I heard it was great.

 

[Seabeast2000]

"Old Henry"- thumbs up.

 

[Shawn]

my dad gave me the book. It's great.

I’ve been wanting to get that book, my coworker and boss both read it and said it’s just as good as the movie.

 

[Drew]

After "Renfield" was more fun than we expected, in part because of a wonderfully derranged Nicholas Cage performance, my wife and I remembered we'd been meaning to watch "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" because of the incessant memes, because her IG feed has been basically all Pedro Pascal for a while, because of the incessant memes, and because the premise seemed kind of fun.

Hot shit, it was awesome. We turned to each other like 20 minutes in just in shock that it was actually a legitimately good movie. First Pig (which we thought was a spoof trailer when we first saw it, watched it hoping it would simply be so bad it was entertaining, and loved it), which may have been my favorite movie of 2021, and now this... Now that Nicholas Cage has gotten his finances straightened out, it looks like he's got something to prove.

Seriously, best movie I've seen since Everything Everywhere All At Once, and unexectedly best movie I've seen since Pig. Strong recommendation.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Decided to watch all of the Alien films back to back.

 

[zappatton2]

Just watched Evil Dead Rise. Quite enjoyed the shift in tone, while still maintaining ties to the films that came before. Added some creative elements, while retaining nods to the original.

 

[spudmunkey]

John Mullany's "Baby J" stand up special.

I suspect his personality/delivery isn't everyone's bag, but I dig him, and thought it was frigging hillarious.

 

[nightflameauto]

John Mullany's "Baby J" stand up special.

I suspect his personality/delivery isn't everyone's bag, but I dig him, and thought it was frigging hillarious.

We saw this one too. Pretty funny guy with a real knack for self-inflicted attacks, which in their own right usually work for me.

His delivery was a bit dry, but I dug him too.

 

[TheBlackBard]

I may just be sheltered, but I watched The Road and... I'm good on bleakness for a bit, Jesus fucking Christ. Most of the color scheme was gray with some dark brown, and some of the shit in that movie, with the impending possibilities of... well, if you know, you know. So many upsetting aspects and scenes in the movie. Good movie but I'm not sure if I can stomach another viewing.

 

[Mathemagician]

John Mullany's "Baby J" stand up special.

I suspect his personality/delivery isn't everyone's bag, but I dig him, and thought it was frigging hillarious.

He came out swinging about himself and just owned all his behavior. Just put it out there - hilariously I might add. And then kept going. About 15 min I was like “oh so this is how he sounds sober. Ok, like a toned down non-caricature of himself. It was good though, I laughed a lot.

 

[Seabeast2000]

Amsterdam - what a pile of shit. Lots of big names do not make a good script or editing.